Five new bus and coach routes: Part 3

Tuesday 15th September 2026

After Wigan, St Helens, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Stroud and West Drayton, I continued last week’s exploration of new bus routes by sampling the latest additions to networks in London and Hampshire.

TfL’s newbie joins its expanding Superloop network – route SL12. It’s been a while since a new route has been added to the network – the last being the SL11 between North Greenwich and Thamesmead in January, which itself wasn’t really new, being a straight replacement for route 472. Before that there was Bakerloop BL1 in September 2025 and route SL4 through the new SIlvertown Tunnel in April 2025.

So now its the turn of the new SL12 which began on Saturday 5th September and continues the tradition of adding an extra route offering quicker journey times with no compensating frequency reductions on parallel standard routes. Its trajectory is also part of what could become an outer loop in north east London commencing in Gants Hill heading east towards Romford then south via Elm Park to Rainham, bringing Superloop to the London Borough of Havering for the first time.

As always with TfL you can’t fault the comprehensive and impressive coverage provided by the timetable with a 12 minute frequency (15 minutes evening and all day Sundays) extending from 05:00 to 01:15, even on Sundays. Stagecoach were awarded the contract and operate the SL12 with 14 brand new Wrightbus Streetdeck Electroliner buses from its garage in Rainham.

End to end journey time averages around an hour with a further six minutes added for peak journeys meaning three of the 14 buses are effectively used as layover buses for recovery time.

My experience of travelling from Grants Hill to Rainham mid morning when trying out the route last Wednesday indicated the running times are about right but so far there were only small numbers of passengers travelling – around five or six on different sections of the route.

Leaving Gants Hill there’s a perception of a quicker journey along Eastern Avenue and North Street to Romford due to observing far fewer stops than the long standing parallel route 66 (also every 12 minutes) but the reality is route SL12 is given 29 minutes for that part of the route and the 66 takes 31 minutes, so a negligible difference.

From Romford to South Hornchurch the SL12 offers a much more convenient direct routing than comparable routes 165 and 365 – for example buses on the SL12 travel from Romford Station to the large Tesco Extra at Rainham in 26 minutes but on the 165 it takes 44 minutes having gone via Emerson Park. I think it’s this end of the route where there’ll be the most potential for genuine passenger generation rather than just abstraction.

The far southern end of the route brings a bus service to the Ferry Lane Industrial Estate on Rainham Marshes alongside the north bank of the River Thames for the first time.

I’m sure employees at the various factories, warehouses and businesses located here will appreciate the new service but a 12 minute frequency (15 minutes evenings/Sundays) across 20 hours a day is somewhat of an overkill. TfL’s obsession with running all its routes (except the 166) from one terminus at one end of the route to the other come what may, is to blame here, as it would make more sense to terminate the majority of SL12 journeys at Tesco Extra with only one or two an hour continuing to the Industrial Estate and save at least one and maybe two buses. It’s an expensive way to serve this Industrial area which, late morning on Wednesday, was dead.

Another oddity on Wednesday was the next stop announcement continually advising passengers “route SL12 to Leytonstone” rather than Rainham which the driver told me she thought was a software problem back at the depot rather than just this bus.

Even odder, an original draft of the second phase of Superloop produced at the time of Sadiq Khan standing for election in 2024 showed the SL12 (then expected to be numbered SL13) with its western terminus at Leytonstone rather than Gants Hill.

Then on the return journey from Rainham a different bus was telling passengers it was “route SL12 to Romford Station” as per the internal visual display, but not the external destination display – which correctly showed Gants Hill.

Most odd. And confusing for anyone actually listening to such announcements.

Route SL12 represents a significant investment for TfL with increased annual operating costs of the order of around £4 million for the 14 intensively used buses alongside fairly limited potential for generating revenue over and above existing use of parallel bus routes – especially the northern end of the route.

However, changes also introduced on 5th September saw cutbacks in routes along the Tottenham High Road corridor (259, 279 and 349) resulting in a saving of 11 buses which, when taken with a frequency reduction on route 182 (Brent Cross to Harrow Weald) from the same date, makes for a saving of a further three buses which neatly funds the SL12 introduction.

The fifth and final new route to be featured in this three part blog is Stagecoach South’s route 8. Introduced on 30th August it provides a convenient new direct link between Yateley and Farnborough in Hampshire.

Yateley had been served by Stagecoach’s route 3 to Aldershot via The Meadows shopping centre at Sandhurst, Camberley, Frimley Park Hospital and Ash running every 15 minutes between Yateley and Canberley and half hourly on to Frimley Park Hospital, Ash Vale and Aldershot.

Route 3 has now reduced to a half hourly frequency across its entire route with the half hourly short journeys between Yateley and Camberley withdrawn but as part compensation new hourly route 8 now links Yateley with Farnborough which, although only six miles apart, have lacked a direct bus link for a number of years.

I took a look at this network development last Thursday morning catching the 11:40 departure on the new hourly service from its southern terminus at Farnborough’s Kingsmead shopping centre.

Route 8 inconveniently rounds in 64 minutes so has been operationally linked to hourly route 10 (to Fleet and Church Crookham) which rounds in 95 minutes making for a neat cycle of three interworked buses.

Additional peak time buses on route 8 extend beyond Yateley to Eversley and Finchamstead for school children who previously travelled on route 406.

It was good to see promotional posters on display in Farnborough for the new route and extolling the virtues of a free weekend travel offer during September which I also saw promoted throughout the route.

Stagecoach had also displayed timetables at every bus stop but sadly the county council had not got round to adding the number 8 to its otherwise smart bus stop flag displays except oddly I noticed a couple of stops in Yateley had been done.

The former Stagecoach Gold specified Enviro400 MMC arrived on time from route 10 and half a dozen passengers alighted with the driver changing the blind to read ‘Yateley 8’ and initially it was just me boarding but then three more passengers joined as our departure time of 11:40 approached.

Chatting to the driver he thought the route didn’t offer an attractive enough proposition to persuade passengers to travel rather than continue with their traditional route 3. He said many had expressed disappointment at the reduction in frequency to The Meadows where the anchor stores are a large M&S and a Tesco Extra as well as other retailers whereas the Kingsmead shopping centre in Farnborough, where we were, had a Sainsbury’s as anchor and a few other retailers.

Old shopping habits die hard.

Anyway we were off to Yateley and after calling in at Farnborough Main station we picked up another passenger at Farnborough Green before continuing on a new stretch of bus route along the B3272, Hawley Lane and Hawley Road, to serve a part of Frogmore as well as Darby Green both also served by route 3.

Yateley is served by means of a clockwise loop around the residential area which also has a Waitrose (yes, it’s that kind of area) at the far end of the circuit.

We dropped three of our four passengers off at Forge Court at the start of the loop, where another boarded travelling to Waitrose, with the other passenger also alighting on the loop.

A road closure necessitated a small diversion at the end of the loop and heading back into Farnborough we carried five passengers.

It was only the second week of the new link so I’m sure it will build and Stagecoach’s announcement about the changes indicated the withdrawn short journeys to Camberley on route 3 were poorly patronised and this new arrangement is “broadening the range of destinations available by bus to Yateley residents”.

I had to smile at the description of new service 8 providing “vital links” which makes you wonder if they were vital, why were they withdrawn in the first place. But it’s good to see the direct links now back on the map and good that this new route is being supported with LABG funding.

It’ll be interesting to see whether those shopping habits do change.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS